Features News - Page 6 of 24

Attention seekers

If variety is the spice of life, then the PlayStation 3 is a particularly posh brand of pepper. Arguably more than any other platform holder over the past five years, Sony has provided its system with a stream of high quality content. From big-budget blockbusters like Heavy Rain and Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune, to smaller...

Motion in the ocean

Despite the device being on the market for over two years now, few developers have managed to get the same precision out of the PlayStation Move as Zindagi Games. The second-party studio – which is based in the heart of sunny California – describes itself as a motion control specialist, having already shipped three top...

Final countdown

Sony, like most other publishers, is not a massive fan of mid-year releases. The platform holder has had some success launching Sucker Punch’s two supercharged inFamous titles during the sunny window, but it typically reserves its heavy hitters for the start of the year or the festive period. It’s interesting, then, that the...

Worse for wear

PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is an excellent game. It may lack polish in areas – the menus in particular are some of the worst we’ve ever seen – but the core gameplay is superb. Developer SuperBot Entertainment clearly invested a lot of time into making each character’s fighting style unique, and it

Back to the Cooper

There’s more variety crammed into the opening chapter of Sly Cooper: Thieves in Time than most games manage across an entire campaign. Within the first three hours of the PlayStation 3 sequel, you’ll have performed two heists, spent an afternoon fishing, and even completed a rhythm action mini-game in which an...

Pressen matters

Earlier this year, we were lucky enough to receive a behind the scenes presentation from DONTNOD Entertainment, where co-lead designer Philippe Moreau helped demonstrate the brawling and melee mechanics in Remember Me, its Capcom published third-person action-adventure. It was clear that Nilin, the acrobatic female protagonist, was...

Generation game

Nintendo of America boss Reggie Fils-Aime reckons that Sony will need to do more than manufacture cutting edge technology in order to compete with the Wii U. The executive was responding to a query regarding the longevity of the recently released platform once the next generation console eventually arrives. “In the end, our...

Fighting talk

Since switching Capcom for Sony Santa Monica, lead game designer Seth Killian has been spending a lot of time with first-party upstart SuperBot Entertainment, where he’s been helping apply the finishing touches to PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale. We were lucky enough to catch up with the fighting game aficionado, where we...

Purely academic

Steel Minions may sound like any other indie start-up on the surface – but the studio has a much more interesting tale to tell. Founded in 2010 by British university Sheffield Hallam, the outfit was conceived in order to provide game production students with hands-on experience within an operational development environment...

Monster mash

Playing God of War: Ascension is a lot like riding a bike after a brief hiatus: for a few fleeting moments the gameplay feels foreign, but then everything clicks into place. Sony Santa Monica’s fourth outing in Greek mythology bashes you over the head with the many combos you’ve spent years perfecting, and then it invites you to...

Test drive

Ask any racing fan what their favourite gaming experience has been over the past five years, and there’s a good chance that Codemasters’ Race Driver: GRID will rank at the sharp end of their list. Since its release in 2008, GRID has developed something of a cult following, thanks in part to its strong racing heart and fine damage...

Down the line

The furore surrounding the introduction of new motion peripherals back in 2010 meant that the excellent Sports Champions got lost in the shuffle. Sony pushed the mini-game compilation as the first must-have title for the PlayStation Move, but post-release discussion almost always centred on the title’s technology rather than the...

Massive attack

For all the satisfaction that comes alongside creating video games, there are times when it can be a gruelling occupation. Thankfully, the Kyoto-based studio behind the PixelJunk series has happened upon an innovative means of maintaining morale throughout the day. For the past six months, Q-Games has been using its lunch breaks to...

Shopping spree

“Why now?” commented the chorus of critics following the announcement of Sony’s widely publicised PlayStation Store refresh earlier today. With the next-generation popularly predicted to kick-start in late 2013, the imminent arrival of the new storefront may seem somewhat mistimed – but it could also indicate that the...

Torque of the town

For many, the Joe Danger franchise will forever be associated with PlayStation. After struggling to find a publisher, Guildford-based indie developer Hello Games signed up to Sony’s widely-publicised ‘Pub Fund’ scheme – a move which provided the studio with financial support in return for exclusivity. The game proved to...

Bricks and mortar

If you haven’t set foot in PlayStation Home since the virtual world’s initial roll-out, you may be surprised by the current state of the social platform. The free-to-play destination has erupted with activity over the past 12 months, prompting a location that’s both bursting with content and brimming with life. The catalyst...

Come out swingin'

There are three things we’ve come to realise while writing this preview for the latest Metal Gear outing from Platinum Games. First, we still can't type "Revengeance" into a text document without hating ourselves – it's not a word, it isn't cool, it sounds dumb. Second, we’ve learned that we’re okay with Konami releasing...

Blind man's buff

It’s difficult to discuss The Unfinished Swan without drawing comparisons to Journey. Just like thatgamecompany, developer Giant Sparrow has been taken under the wing of first-party powerhouse Sony Santa Monica. Furthermore, it has signed a three game exclusivity deal with PlayStation. Indeed, the only noticeable difference...

Muggle science

The outrage and controversy caused by Wonderbook: Book of Spells’ elongated E3 showing has made it difficult to discuss the augmented reality experience objectively. And yet here we have one of the most unique and commercially viable casual gaming products Sony has produced since the Eye Toy. The Harry Potter spin-off doesn’t...

Sky's the limit

DUST 514 is easily the most ambitious title in the pipeline for the PlayStation 3. It takes the grandeur of MAG’s sandbox first-person battles, and merges them in real-time with the corporate politics of popular PC MMO EVE Online. After an impressive showing at the Eurogamer Expo in London last week, we felt it was an appropriate...

Through the looking glass

Sony shocked attendees at its Tokyo Game Show press conference earlier this week by announcing the PlayStation 3 Super Slim. Unfortunately, the corrugated console itself was not the reason for open-mouthed attendees – that accolade was reserved for its flummoxing price-point. Indeed, as opposed to positioning the aging...

Here comes a new challenger

They’d never admit it, but the upper-executives at Sony Computer Entertainment were no doubt glued to Nintendo’s pre-release Wii U press conferences last week. After a disappointing E3 showing, the competitor pulled out all the stops to convince consumers its latest platform is worth paying attention to – and...

We speak exclusively to the guys that changed the face of racing games forever

Following the recent closure of Studio Liverpool, we decided the time was ripe to investigate the story behind one of the most famous franchises to emerge from the developer: WipEout. One of the first PlayStation titles to really show off the raw 3D muscle of the...

Koji ‘IGA’ Igarashi reveals the history behind the gothic classic

Castlevania: Symphony of the Night marked a major turning point for the Castlevania series. With the exception of the free-roaming Simon’s Quest on the NES, over a decade’s worth of instalments had displayed an unwavering commitment to the fairly straightforward ‘platform...